“Please stay calm and return to your homes,” Sehra was shouting. “The clerics can see you all individually there.”
“You!” A man Vi had never seen before darted in front of her. His face was twisted in rage, spittle flying from his lips. “Crown Princess Solaris,” he sneered.
“I would advise you to step back, sir,” Jayme cautioned, taking a small step forward. She didn’t have her sword drawn, but her grip had certainly tightened on its hilt.
“What areyoudoing?” The man ignored Jayme and kept his eyes on Vi. His shouting was starting to gain attention.
“I—”
He wasn’t interested in whatever answer she could come up with. “You came, destroyed our home, dragged us through the mud, then told us our lives would be better. But all the Empire has brought Shaldan is disease and heartbreak.”
Vi opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. What should she say? Whatcouldshe say? She certainly hadn’t done anything to try to stop the White Death or its spread. Even if she had wanted to, she wasn’t Darrus. She couldn’t go and work in the infirmary… she had a role to fill as the heir.
And for the very first time, Vi wondered if that was the role sheshouldfill. If her mission was to do what was best for her Empire, then she should let nothing, not even her throne, get in the way of that… right? It was an answer she didn’t have time to come up with as the brief moment of introspection was quickly interrupted.
“What will Solaris do?” he demanded again. “All I see areourclerics,ourblood on the ground,ourpeople in danger. Is Solaris just leaving us to die?”
“Is help coming from the Empire? Or are we alone?” Another woman stepped forward, emboldened by the man’s tirade.
“The White Death is affecting everyone—the South, East, West, and North. It is a plague on us all. My father has already left for the Crescent Continent,” Vi said quickly. She cleared her throat, trying to dictate her words as her tutors had instructed, putting on her best Empress voice. “He has gone in search of a cure that—”
“They say the disease itself comes from the Crescent Continent,” another woman spoke. Vi turned, surprised to see the old Western woman she had purchased spices from. Her beady black eyes bored into Vi’s soul. “He will meet his demise on that foreign land. If he has gone into those pirate-infested waters, into the territory of Adela, she will kill him as she killed his grandfather before him. The Emperor Solaris is already dead.”
“Hold your tongue,” Vi whispered. There was a dangerous note to her voice, one she had never heard herself make before. “Careful, lest someone hear your words for the treason they are.”
“We ask questions and it’s treason?” The first man balked, talking even louder. “This is how Solaris treats us!”
“No, that’s not what I—” Vi tried to say quickly but was interrupted.
“That’s enough,” Sehra said quietly. She didn’t shout, didn’t need to. “Focus on the wounds yet bleeding before you go looking for old scars to tear open.” She narrowed her eyes at the man. Vi watched how, with a look, Sehra suddenly made herself seem twice her size and the man half of his.
“Chieftain, I meant no disrespect.” He lowered his eyes, shoulders curling forward slightly.
“Is that so? Certainly an odd way of showing it. You disrespect me, as I told everyone to leave, and you disrespect my honored guest, the Crown Princess.” Sehra’s eyes swung to them as the others scattered. Vi looked for the Western woman, but she was already gone. All of the transgressions against her family tonight would have to be forgiven, it seemed. Forgiven, maybe, but not forgotten. “I told everyone to leave, and that includes you three.”
Vi was suddenly aware Andru had materialized at her left. For all his awkwardness, he was proving himself a true friend time and again.
“We’re gathering Ellene and then going back to the fortress,” Jayme reported stiffly.
Sehra gave a small nod of approval. “No more distractions.”
This time, no one stopped them getting to Ellene. She was engaged in a heated conversation with Darrus, arms flailing, voice strained to a barely audible pitch.
“Ellene, we need go back.” Vi grabbed the girl’s elbow.
Ellene jerked away without even looking at them, focusing on the man she’d been dancing with all night. “Not without Darrus, he’s not talking sense.”
“I have to go to the infirmary, Elle,” he said gently.
“This is getting serious!” Ellene grabbed his hands, tears welling in her eyes. Vi resisted the urge to correct her that it had been serious for some time. Darrus was the only one among them who had really done something. “Come, stay in the fortress—it’s safer there, with us. Let other clerics do the work, they don’t need you. You’re not even fully trained yet.”
“Ellene, I can’t.” Darrus pulled her in tightly. “I have to help our people. New clerics just arrived with medicine from the West today. They have more insights. We’re going to beat this.”
Vi found herself admiring Darrus once more. He was composed and certain of himself when she could barely fend off the panicked ravings of one of her subjects. He continued to fearlessly step up, putting his life in danger, for the sake of his people—her people, her Empire.
What kind of a leader did that make her if she needed others to stand in for her at every turn? What could she be doing for her people?
Finding the apexes of fate was a way to stop this. If they held the knowledge of how to stop Raspian, it would stop the White Death, too.
